Blue crab panel: Take action to avoid fishery collapse

Convinced that the state's management plan to rebuild the decimated blue crab stock is failing, a commercial watermen's advisory panel is urging a new approach to avoid a collapse of the fishery.

The Virginia Blue Crab Industry Panel is calling for a pilot program to test individual catch limits for watermen rather than restrict the fishery by season, daily catches or gear. It also wants better science on crab mortality and a modern mandatory online system to report daily harvests for better timeliness and accountability.

"One of the scary things we see with the industry is we don't have anybody that has an aggressive stock rebuilding plan," panel chairman and seafood business owner Bill Mullis said Thursday. "We're wondering how much longer people can wait. I think collapse … won't be a total stock collapse, but a collapse in the fishery."

The 14-member panel serves as a volunteer advisory group for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) on the state's $30 million annual blue crab fishery.

In 2012, the overall population of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay rocketed to 765 million. Last year, it plummeted to 298 million — the leanest since 2008, when federal officials declared an emergency and Virginia joined with Maryland on a stock management plan.

The 2014 winter dredge survey shows that, while the crabbing harvest is at a safe level and juvenile crab numbers increased 78 percent from last year, overall abundance still hasn't increased.

The state restricts blue crab harvest by season and bushel limit, and in June VMRC commissioners voted to reduce the female harvest by 10 percent for the next year and as much as 40 percent during key spawning periods in November and March. They also voted to close the controversial winter dredge fishery for the seventh year in a row.

'They're gonna kill it'

But Mullis said blue crab numbers are so low watermen can't catch their limit, anyway, so a 10 percent reduction is toothless. He claims a better approach is to give watermen more leeway in how and when to meet individual catch numbers — including reinstating the winter dredge. The state should also address widespread poaching in the crab pot fishery and phase out controversial peeler pots.

Peeler pots are wire cages baited with male crabs, called jimmies, to lure and trap young she-crabs, called peelers. Mullis said anecdotal evidence shows the method has a 50 percent mortality rate, largely from cannibalism among trapped crabs. Regular crab pots don't show the same mortality because they contain food bait and have bigger exit holes for smaller crabs to escape.

"They're taking females that have never given birth and never will," Mullis said. "Peelers are getting smaller and smaller and smaller. It's degenerated the fishery in peeler pots. If you ask old-timers what happened to the crab industry, they'll say, 'Peeler potting, son. They're gonna kill it.'"

The bay needs at least 70 million female blue crabs for a sustainable population, but according to the 2014 winter dredge survey that number has fallen 1 million short. The target population for female crabs for sustainability is 215 million.

VMRC commissioner John Bull said the panel's recommendations are "concepts" that he has already discussed with some of its members. A few of those ideas are already in the works, such as expanding electronic reporting and examining waste within the peeler pot fishery. But others are less feasible.

He disagreed that major changes are needed.

"The crab fishery is being responsibly managed," Bull said. "We're in better shape now than we have been in many decades. The stock is no longer being overfished. We have significant management tools in place now that have made it possible to cure the problem of overfishing."

Other factors to blame

The real culprit in sinking stock numbers, he said, is weather and other environmental factors.

An unusually long and cold winter killed off a large portion of crab stock — 28 percent of Maryland's adult crabs were wiped out. The bay is still suffering a chronic loss of the underwater grasses that serve as protective habitat for baby crabs against predators, and poor water quality.

Another big problem is predation. Four years ago, recreational anglers in the bay reported catching about 28,000 red drum, which prey on crabs. Two years ago, the number of red drum had exploded to 2.5 million.

"It was an amazingly reproductive year," Bull said. "We had a couple of warm summers (and) these fish that would normally migrate out of the bay didn't. They stayed. And they love crabs. They had an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for the entire year."

Before that, he said, the blue crab stock had hit record numbers.

Bull said he encourages panel members to meet with his fisheries staff to determine if their concepts can be turned into a workable management plan.

The pilot project in particular would involve a long-term restructuring of the entire fishery, he said.